Comments for thomasknierim.com

Comment on Java Currency Conversion Class by thomas

thomas — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:12:02 +0000

You can find out which currencies are supported by typing this URL into your browser’s address field: http://www.ecb.int/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml. I believe CFA (Franc?) is not one of them. The problem with bank holidays is indeed not addressed in this implementation. One could change/overwrite the cacheIsExpiredMethod() method to remember the last time the expiration time was checked and increase the tolerance value adaptively if the newly donwloaded XML file carries the old date. This would minimise attempts to re-download the file, but it adds a bit of complexity to the class.

Comment on Java Currency Conversion Class by gopal

gopal — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:01:17 +0000

is it support CFA currency???
i have tested but not working…

its really good but not suits to my needs.

Comment on The Emusic Blues by thomas

thomas — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:02:46 +0000

It seems that eMusic is not playing cricket…

Comment on The Emusic Blues by StJohn

StJohn — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:14:57 +0000

Same here, but long term customer, over five years. Emailed customer service three or four times and zero response, good polite people that they are. Relied on them to purchase music legally at sensible prices, sad to see that option gone. Off to the torrent sites…

Comment on The Emusic Blues by Ro

Ro — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:22:52 +0000

Im singing the same blues.. I had a nightmare trying to get any information from emusic.com about what was going on with my account. Thanks a lot for the post, though you confirmed my fears. I’m a DJ and its hopeless trying to get music of a sound quality suitable for big systems from around town and the file-sharing networks… ears will be violated. At least we can still sneak on to the emusic.com front page to preview tunes and then buy them somewhere else. Will enjoy taking up their bandwidth now that they have bailed on us! If this move is due to Thailand’s liberal copyright enforcement, I don’t follow their logic. True pirates would never pay for original stock in the first place…hijack and pillage!

Comment on Effective Java by Joshua Bloch

Joshua Bloch — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:53:26 +0000

Thanks so much for the kind words! I am thrilled that you found Effective Java 2e to be so useful.

Josh

Comment on Java Currency Conversion Class by Justin Emery

Justin Emery — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:48:15 +0000

Hi,

This has been really useful, thanks for making it.

Just thought I’d let you know about a couple of problems I’ve come across while using it.

Firstly, for me the cache was placed in file called tmpExchangeRates.xml rather than a file tmp/ExchangeRates.xml. To fix this, I used this code in the initCacheFile method:
String tempdir = System.getProperty(”java.io.tmpdir”);
if ( !(tempdir.endsWith(”/”) || tempdir.endsWith(”\\”)) )
tempdir = tempdir + System.getProperty(”file.separator”);
cacheFileName = tempdir + “ExchangeRates.xml”;

The other problem I have just had was very amusing. I’m using the CurrencyConverter class to convert a whole table of currencies, but for some reason it is taking a few seconds to do this. I realised it must be downloading the cache file on every conversion. cacheIsExpired() is returning true every time, and the reason is: today is a bank holiday (Easter Monday), so the exchange rates haven’t been updated!

I can’t think of an easy way to fix this. Could perhaps download a list of EU bank holidays for the coming year, and work it out from that.

Anyway, thanks again, it’s been a very useful class.

Comment on Moore’s law in full swing by Stephen Felce

Stephen Felce — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:42:53 +0000

Computers and associated technologies like disk storage media are an expanding universe whose development cannot be explained by what we as users can see ourselves as the beneficiaries (aka Spacetime - see thebigview.com). There is a lot of dark material with hidden attributes lurking in the designs of successive generations. This is because the operating systems and software applications increasingly are bloated with additional features largely obliterating any increase in raw power. Added to that there is a strong element of change in the graphical user interfaces whereby all the concepts have to be relearned within a userspace. I suspect this is deliberate to obscure the fact that profit is the objective far more than progress. Take the replacement of Windows XP by Vista, for example which eats up the extra power on any PC you are likely to acquire with Vista on it.

I myself was a programmer for a number of years starting out with an IBM 1401 in the mid 1960s with memory of 14K into which it is was regular practice to build programs as large as 20K through methods such as overlays. In addition, techniques such as chaining were used to minimise the take-up of memory. By comparison with computers today, the 1401 was very primitive but the skill in using it far outstripped the inefficient and bug-ridden code one invariably encounters today.

Most applications today are full of features which find rare use in most people’s hands, if any at all. Most features have a proliferation of variants so that being aware of any one of them and how to use it is a nightmare rather than an opportinuity.

It’s a bit like my microwave which I bought in Sainsbury’s in the UK for £25 to replace a £200 model from Panasonic when it went wrong. The more elaborate unit has any number of buttons from which to choose depending upon whether it is meat or fish, from frozen or not etc. I eventually discovered from the £25 unit that all one needs in a timer and a power level control, that on the more elaborate machine the other controls collectively comprised no more than a graphical user confidence trick to encourage me to spend another £175.

I am afraid that it is much the same with computers.